Bandage
by PatterCake
Summary: Lemongrab 2 falls and hurts himself shortly after being made, experiencing pain for the first time, so his older brother teaches him about this new emotion. Incest shippers please don't read this as lemoncest makes me incredibly uncomfortable.


Lemongrab was in the makeshift lab he'd made out of the downstairs bathroom, trying to fix his sound sword. The final blast that had knocked both Mother Princess and her little boy champion off their feet and into the wall had completely fried the internal circuit. He hmmed in annoyance and poked it with a stick but no matter how he poked or yelled it stubbornly refused to be fixed. One of these pokes sent a painful spark of electricity right onto his finger.

He yelped and shoved in hand in his mouth. He wondered if he should go to the cabinet over the sink and put a bandag-

There was a piercing yowl from outside the castle followed by shuddering footsteps and the door being flung open. He turned around, hissing at the disturbance, but stopped when he saw his brother, the other earl who he had nicknamed Riggamarole, standing in the doorway and sobbing inconsolably.

Lemongrab took his hand out of his mouth and gestured for his brother to speak.

"There iiiis something wrong with meeeee!" His brother screamed and cried even harder.

"Hmmm…" Lemongrab said curiously as he considered this. Being wrong was to be expected of the clone of an experiment gone wrong - maybe he could take him apart to learn how he himself had gone wrong- maybe then he'd know why he too was a failure, but first he would have to investigate, "what issss wrong with yooouu?"

"I am leeaakiiing… on my kneeecap..!" his brother wailed.

"Leeaaking?" now that his brother mentioned it there was a smudge of yellow on his knee, as well as blotches of dirt.

"I fell off the pegasus," The second earl sniffled, "and now there iiis something wrong with my lemon rind and… and…" the younger Lemongrab searched for words he didn't know yet, "I feel the opposite of when I met you."

"What?" asked Lemongrab.

"It is… it is…" Riggamarole wiped his long nose as he tried to explain himself, "it is like the opposite of good…" his brother continued, "this feeling."

"That is called bad." Lemongrab stated

"Bad?" Riggamarole asked quietly, saying it like a foreign word. Which it was. There had never been anything bad in his life, up until now.

"Yes. Youuu feeel… bad. Ungood. That is all." Lemongrab was both disappointed at this loss of scientific insight yet somehow profoundly relieved in an unlemon and disturbing way that there wasn't anything wrong with his brother. He was only bleeding a little. "Sit down."

He stood up from his chair and went to get his brother a bandage from the cabinet.

"Roll up your trouser leg, Slavegrab." he commanded. His brother, who would normally argue against this kind of treatment, was too hurt to do anything but obey him.

Lemongrab examined the scrape. A few shavings of lemonrind had been peeled away by the fall, and he was indeed bleeding quite a bit. It looked like it stung.

He gently placed the bandage over the cut and lifted his brother's leg to carefully wrap it around, momentarily forgetting all about how gross touching was.

His brother hmmed when he was finished and reached to touch the fabric on his knee in wonder. "What is thiiis…. Magical item?"

"It is only a bandage dearest brother." He did have to admit that his naivete was very refreshing, and it was nice to be the one explaining things and teaching and giving orders for once.

Though it was embarrassing to admit he felt a bit like mother princess. He had the feeling when his brother listened to him attentively and did what he said, that he thought of him like that too. That he almost looked up to him. It was… acceptable. The other Lemongrab was acceptable. Even when his brother did immensely unacceptable things like try to touch fire and go outside in the rain with no coat on because he didn't know what hot or cold were. Lemongrab found it hard to believe that he had ever been like that. Young, innocent, trusting, gentle, naive, untainted. Stupid.

Perhaps that stupidity why Mother never visited him.

"A bandage?" His brother's question snapped back to reality.

"Yes. You place it on yooouur hmmmm…. Your pain to stop it…"

Riggamarole took his hand away from the bandage, deep in thought. Lemongrab quickly rolled his trouser leg back down while muttering about how he was being treated like some kind of servant. Riggamarole didn't respond.

"But brother…" he asked eventually, "what isss… pain?"

"Pain is when you fall from theeeee window onto yooouuur face," Lemongrab explained, letting go of his trouser leg, "or when your food is spiiiked with…. nngh spicy water, the NASTY kind! And then you are pushed onto theeee floor, or pain is when yoouu scrape your sour little knee. It is aaaa… UNACCEPTABLE FEEEELING!"

Riggamarole nodded at this. Pain was something unacceptable. He finished rolling his trouser leg down and tucked it into his blue shoe while his brother wrung his hands in exasperation.

"You dirtied your trouser leg!" He scolded, "Iiii told yooouuu NOT to wear theeee white clothes- you can have my black hand me downs and then you will always look acceptable with no gross dirt!"

"But how will people tell us apart?" Riggamarole asked.

"Brother there are no people! Onlyyy lemons! We are alone in the castle! Iiii know which earl I am," he pointed at himself and then at his brother, "yoouuuu know which earl Iiii am, so there is no need for us to look different."

"I mean when the princess visits us."

Lemongrab fell silent. He put his hands together and ran his fingers over each other as he tried to swallow the bitter feelings he had about what he had to say, "It is… uuunnlikelyy that Mother Princess will visiiit us."

"Unlikely?" Riggamarole said in confusion, "But she seemed so very fond of you- she even sought fit to make another you," he placed his hands over his heart "me."

"Ah… you do not understand." Lemongrab had hoped he would have a little more time before he had to explain this delicate matter to his twin. But all his questions… when is the princess coming, when will she come and see us, it is nearly my month anniversary will she come and see me, it was so hard to tell him the truth- so painful. As he thought that his lowered eyes landed on his brother's stained leg and he saw a way to explain. "Mother is unnnlikelyyy tooo visit because Iiii…. cause her pain.

"You cause her pain? You push her onto the floor and spike her food with spicy water?" Riggamarole shrank back in fear and Lemongrab quickly explained:

"No… no I cause her… emotional pain…"

"Emoshunal pain?"

"Iii have not iiiinformed you of this but yes, there is such a thing." he told him, "Emotional pain… it is when the pain- the scraped knee- is not in your skin but in your heart. When bad things happen and nobodyyyy loves or misses yooouuu, when you want to cry but your body is completely functional. That is… eeeemotional pain. The pain of theee heart. That is how I hurt mother. Whenever she is near me… she sighs and frowns and says… things… that I am wrong…. Gone wrong and unacceptable… That I hurt her. She… she did make another me however…. However…."

Lemongrab kept his eyes trained on the ground so he wouldn't see his twins face as he told him the true reason behind his creation. "She made you so yooouu would be with meee and I would no longer hurt her by being near her. And that is why… she will not come to see us on your birthday."

Neither of them said a word to each other for a few minutes until Riggamarole finally broke the silence in a shaking voice:

"This feeling I have… when I think about her not liking us nnNNGHH…" he clawed at his chest, "get… pain in my chest. Is this theee emotional pain?"

Lemongrab nodded "I see you have learned." he thought about what to say to his brother. He was such a hassle to deal with, he was supposed to make him happy but all he'd done today was make him think about sad things. How dare he! Dungeon for 5 years! And yet he was also a Lemongrab so any feelings he had were shared with his brother, meaning his brother must also feel this sadness. What could he do to make him happy?

Riggamarole viewed him as his mother princess, and what did he, the true Lemongrab, long for his mother to say to him? That was simple, he wanted her to visit him and take his sound sword that he'd spent hours making and show him how to fix it, and tell him in her soft way:

"Well done Lemongrab."

The second Lemongrab smiled despite his sadness at this praise and Lemongrab felt warm inside, like how he felt when he was zapping the prisoners with juice.

Riggamarole tapped his heels together happily and casually asked "Is there aaaa bandage for eeeemotional... pain toooo make it... go away as well?"

"No no no there is nothing tooo be done about wounds of the heart. They are bleeding, nnngghh gross festering cuts... bruises that NEVEER heal, and they are so easily reeeopened…"

"So… so does this mean you will feel pain for all your life…" Riggamarole asked as his eyes watered again, "that thought... gives meee so much pain- why did the princess make me if life is full of pains and aches like this?"

He started to cry again.

"Life is not completely bitter... sour and filled wiiith pain," Lemongrab tried to reassure him, "there are moments of…. sweeeetness and happineeess. There are moments when your pain goes away. Now stop crying how dare you you are making ME sad!"

His brother wiped his eyes and said, "When it goes away? Like when?"

"Weeell… I suppose…" Lemongrab tried to think of such a moment of sweetness and happiness. But no matter how he thought, only one thing came to mind, "when I am with you is one such moment."

His brother reached out and grabbed his hand, "You make all my pain go away too."

Normally Lemongrab would have slapped his brother's hand away and warned him about germs and diseases and scared him away from doing it again but instead he let his brother cling out to him. It was every bit as uncomfortable as he imagined it to be, and too hard and pokey, with so much finger squeezing, but also it was warm. Maybe it was even nice? Or if not nice then bearable, both uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. Something acceptable yet also unacceptable. How strange. He would have to run more tests on this.

Experimentally, he bent forwards and wrapped his arms around his brother. He stiffly, mechanically patted his back like he had seen people in films doing. Maybe now he could understand why it was they did this- maybe he could even be normal like them- accepted. He released his brother and carefully watched his reaction.

"Brother…" The younger Lemongrab said, "what was that… it was... The opposite of pain and I feel all better now."

"That was…" Lemongrab struggled to remember the word for when someone touches you and it doesn't hurt, "t'was… nnnggghhhhhh…" his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he tried to remember. What was it! Mother had said it to him… candy people are mad special they need contrast stroking and "SNUGGLING!"

"Ah I see! Hmm! Yes! You know so many things brother!"

"Yes I dooo…" Lemongrab admitted smugly, "You should be on your kneeees thanking me for teeeaaaching youuuu… Lemongrab…"

Lemongrab didn't kneel because he was afraid of hurting his knee again but he did bow his head respectfully to his elder brother and whisper, awestruck

_With inhuman, animalistic noises his brother's sharp teeth crunched through his lower body, juice and blood spurting all over his face. Lemongrab could see his own reflection in the wide eyes that were both filled with rage and completely vacant at the same time. He saw himself, a tiny, fragile lemongrab being swallowed up by his twin's huge eyes before his brother knocked the light bulb away. His brother fell into shadow. All he could see was his outline- his familiar silhouette and angular body that was identical to his own morphing and spasming- growing bloated like a feeding leech as he changed into someone- something else. The light swung back and illuminated the tips of Lemongrab's feet still poking out of his brother's mouth. He saw his toes twitching involuntarily as his brother severed his nerves one by one with his clamping, fatal bite. His brother's jaws struggled to hold the quivering legs in his mouth as they slowly slid, still moving, down his throat, kicking as if they were still trying to fulfill his final wish: to run away. In the darkness before the light hit him again he let his face crumple at the burning feeling in his lower body and his unbearable, unacceptable, bad bad bad-_

_He knew the word for this emotion, and he had a feeling that from now on it was all he would ever feel. Silently, he shed tears that his brother would never wipe off his face._

"Thank you brother for teaching me about pain."


End file.
